Weekly Daf #99

Rav Weinbach's insights, explanations and comments for the
7 pages of Talmud studied in the course of the worldwide Daf Yomi cycle

The Great Shout

When the foundation was laid for the Second Beis Hamikdash after
the return from Babylonian exile to Eretz Yisrael there were mixed
reactions.

On the one hand "all the people shouted with a great shout
when they praised Hashem because the foundation of the House of
Hashem was laid" (Ezra 3:11). "But many of the Kohanim
and Levites and the chiefs of the families, old men who had seen
the First House; when the foundation of this House was laid before
their eyes, wept with a loud voice; but many shouted for joy"
(Ezra 3:12). This cacophony is summed up in the closing passage
(Ezra 3:13): "The people could not distinguish the sound
of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people;
for the people shouted with a loud shout and the sound was heard
far away."

Those Jews who had seen the glory of the First Beis Hamikdash
wept because the second one seemed to be so much smaller. Although
more than half a century had passed since the destruction of this
Temple, the weepers, who were all already at an advanced age,
represented the majority of the people present at this scene for
it was the sound of their weeping which overpowered the sound
of joy and was heard far away.

(When Ezra led another group back to Eretz Yisrael almost a quarter
of a century later they offered sacrifices as an atonement for
the sins of idol worship committed before the exile some 75 years
earlier because most of them had been part of that generation!)

Horiyos 6a

Public Servant

Once, on a business voyage, the great sage Rabbi Yehoshua found himself
in the company of the head of the Sanhedrin, Rabbi Gamliel. The
voyage took much longer than scheduled and Rabbi Gamliel's provisions
of bread became inedibly stale and he was forced to subsist on
the more durable flour which Rabbi Yehoshua had brought along
for just such an emergency. When asked how he had anticipated
such a delay caused by an error in navigation, Rabbi Yehoshua
explained that a certain star appears once every seventy years
(Halley's Comet?) and causes the seamen to miscalculate the course
they chart by the regularly appearing stars and his provisions
had been prepared for just such an emergency.

Rabbi Gamliel was so impressed by Rabbi Yehoshua's extraordinary
wisdom that he wondered why such a scholar should be forced to
go to sea to support himself. Rabbi Yehoshua's response was that
there were two other scholars on shore who were so wise that they
could calculate how many drops of water there were in the sea
but could afford neither food nor clothing. Rabbi Gamliel then
decided to appoint these sages to public office and when he landed
he sent for them to inform them of the appointments. They initially
hesitated to come and did so only after a second summons.

Realizing that their initial hesitation stemmed from a desire
to avoid the honor of public office, Rabbi Gamliel told them:
"You think I am conferring power upon you but in truth I
am conferring servitude upon you (for public office makes a man
a servant to the public - Rashi)."